


In Memorium: Hoban "Wash" Washburn and Mr. Universe

by ChokolatteJedi



Series: In Memorium [2]
Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Challenge Response, Character Analysis, Community: tv-universe, Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-21
Updated: 2013-07-21
Packaged: 2017-12-21 02:36:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/894807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A meta discussion of character death: Hoban "Wash" Washburn and Mr. Universe</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Memorium: Hoban "Wash" Washburn and Mr. Universe

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the TV Universe "In Memorium" challenge, where I was prompted to discuss up to five character deaths that had great impact on me.

Okay, this one is going to be a double, because I had trouble talking about the one without the other. Today we discus Serenity. Why yes, I am going to talk about Joss basically being himself and Jossing a character. However, that's not why I'm really talking about these boys.

Wash's death, while tragic, was a little bit expected. At least, in the sense that I knew someone was going to get Jossed. Yes, we had the first death (Book) which we expected, and Mr. Universe kind of happened off screen, so it didn't really count in Jossing terms. So he had to kill someone else to really sock it to us what this message cost. We got through the epic free fall of doom, and I was expecting it to be a 'walk inside and surprise, death!' kind of Jossing. I kind of expected either Simon or Kaylee, to nip that romance in the bud.

But no, it was Wash, and it was gruesome! Not that they showed the gore or anything, but seriously! Tree trunk through the chest? Woah! Talk about overkill! And of course, I loved him, so that part was hard. Not gonna lie, I was crushed! Why you have to kill the only happy functional relationship and one of the two only functional happy people? :(

On the other hand, Joss has taken away someone we loved dearly, (two and a half someones, actually) which in a way, makes it less likely that anyone else is going to die. I mean, when there's cannon fodder aplenty, like a batch of two dozen potentials we don't necessarily care about, then sure, a lot of death will happen. But with a cast of less than a dozen characters that we love, you can only kill off so many of them before you lose the audience entirely.

So for me, Zoe's slice, Kaylee's shot, and River's disappearance into the room of Reavers lose their punch slightly, because I know he can't kill anyone else off. I don't know, maybe I was becoming used to being Jossed at this point? So maybe there's a downside to your deadly predictability, Mr. Whedon. :P

However, I do have to talk about the death of Mr. Universe in this movie. Because here's the thing: the death itself wasn't that impactful. Just showing further the ruthlessness of the Operative. But after his death, the amount of character reveal that we got was really amazing.

So Mr. Universe. First of all, love the actor, love the character concept. Hackers are love, and goofy guys with loose morals are love too. And he really doesn't seem to care about the greater purpose. He knows his place in this world, he knows that what he did to Mal and company with his message was bad (give me my thirty pieces - great allusion!), and he is okay with who he is.

For me, though, the biggest impact of his death was his final moments. He crawled towards his bot, apparently for comfort. However, it is actually a trick, and he uses her to record a message. I love how it started - "Guy killed me Mal! Killed me with a sword." There's this disbelief, probably because of how old-school the weapon is. But also, these are his final words, and he starts with how he died. This is like a victim trying to ID his killer with his last breath. Or like a Shakespearean monologue. Then he saves the day by telling Mal about the backup system.

Like, this guy who really didn't care about anything, in the end, he cared, and he helped Mal and the others. It's a freaking noble death! He's as big of a hero as the rest, in the end, when you think about it. And that's really cool.

So, in honor of our boy's final words, our boys' final words. ;)

"I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I-"

"Guy killed me, Mal. He killed me with a sword. How weird is that? I got... a short span here... they destroyed my equipment but I have a back-up unit... bottom of the complex, right over the generator. Hard to get to. I know they missed it. They can't stop the signal, Mal. They can never stop the signal."


End file.
